Category: Whitehall

For those that may have missed it, the Post Star did an excellent expose this past weekend on local school districts that regularly overcharge the taxpayers and stick these overcharges in “reserve funds”.

By law, a school district is allowed to keep an unreserved fund balance that equals 4 percent of the upcoming year’s budget. However many districts have kept more than this on hand and simply create other reserve accounts for different items.

The school districts and their supporters do not like it when challenged on this and “jeer” at those who complain about school spending. I have been a critic of this practice for some time and intend to continue.

Recently I’ve heard a new and novel argument from these same people that spending from these different accounts “can’t offset taxes.” What this simplistic argument overlooks is that all school expenditures – regardless of which accounts they come from — come from the taxpayers.

In the case of our local school district, most dollars come from taxpayers residing in Dresden and Whitehall, and a small shrinking amount comes from state aid, which itself comes from guess who? The taxpayers.

If money for a “comfortable” gym and plush building (where enrollment is plummeting like rock) comes from a reserve account which can’t be used to offset taxes, the fact remains that the taxpayers filled that reserve account after the Board overcharged on the yearly budget and put only one option in front of the voters; to put the money in a reserve account. It is a sad shame that the powers that be in the school district continue down this road when it will not assist a student get into a better college or get a job, as businesses continue to flee Whitehall and their oppressive property taxes.

Please read the entire Post Star piece. My favorite line is where Superintendent Ella Collins of the Abraham Wing School in Glens Falls is reported as saying this when questioned about her school districts fund balance of $621,642, which equals 16 percent of the budget.

“Collins said the surplus piled up because of expenses that came in below budget.”

Hmmm ….. must have really come in under budget.

Ms. Collins should talk to the Whitehall School Board, where they have come in under budget for over 10 years and keep raising taxes. But then again, we can’t use the excess to offset taxes.

All at once I got a funny feelin’
That something around here was goin on wrong
Hmm
So you know what I did Jimmy?
What?
I got up and I began to look all around for my baby
Was that it?
That was it, you know the woman had packed up and gone
Oh lord

IF IT WASN’T FOR BAD LUCK
Ray Charles

I think everyone understands that taxes are a part of life and I think everyone also believes that most public officials try their best to conserve resources when possible.

Having said that though, what troubles me most about the Whitehall School system is that there has always been very little effort put into a.) watching the taxpayers dollars once they’re in the public coffers and b.) the effort that is made is so cavalier it borders on the bizarre. It would be actually funny at times if it wasn’t for the damage it was doing to the community as a whole. The school board cannot shake their belief that the taxpayers’ pockets are endlessly deep.

What is going on now in Whitehall, with the closing of numerous businesses and the inability of people to sell their own real estate, is that the powers that be in the school district and town have made Whitehall too expensive to live in and there is very little effort being made to do those things to bring people into the community.

What is needed to spur the town forward is a dramatic decrease in the costs associated with living in the confines of Whitehall’s taxing districts. Every year the town stagnates more and taxes are increased, so what we’re all seeing in the demise of Whitehall is a natural outgrowth of years of poor stewardship and planning along with out of control spending combined with a lack of vision. The one thing that Whitehall needs most: a dramatic decrease in taxes, is the one thing that those who are mainly responsible for the tax policy of the community cannot even seem to entertain.

A small example illustrates my point. A few weeks ago, I wrote of the sad vandalism to the playground at the Whitehall School — a child’s slide appeared to have been deliberately broken. The presence of high-tech cameras at the playground, paid for by the taxpayers, were apparently irrelevant to this.

Recently, a reader snapped some photos of the school’s response, which does not involve any actual repair – instead, the school has apparently simply used plywood to render the entire slide – not just the damaged center section – unusable. Perhaps something more permanent is planned – but if so, why not fix it in the summer, when school is not in session?

Courtesy of taxpayers, the Whitehall school system treats students to amenities you’d expect to see on the Queen Mary 2, including tennis courts and an indoor swimming pool. Now the school is funding a complete overhaul of the auditorium as well, despite well-documented plummeting enrollment.

Leaving aside whether large capital improvements are necessary, how can the school board be trusted to undertake projects – with our money – when they can’t even properly fix a broken plastic child’s slide or identify the culprits with high tech security cameras?

Oh yeah?
Lord have mercy
I, I, I, I can understand it, it made you feel like you wanna holler a little bit
Made me feel like I wanna
Aahhhhhhh-ow!
Yeah man, when I run into that situation, makes me wanna cry a little
bit like this
Ooh-hoo!

IF IT WASN’T FOR BAD LUCK
Ray Charles

Recently a reader of the Huletts Current stopped by the playground at the Whitehall school district and emailed me these photographs. As you can see for yourself, the playground was in poor condition due to ignorance and vandalism.

A used, dirty diaper was left rotting in the sun, with garbage littered nearby. This was in clear eyesight from the school.

A used, dirty diaper and garbage were found littering the Whitehall’s school playground.

A slide in the playground was found vandalized and our reader pointed out that the plastic is really hard – it’s meant to stand up to kids running up it, etc. The only way this would get smashed would be if someone took a very large rock, brick, etc., and really put some force into deliberately breaking it – which seems to be what happened.

A hard plastic children’s slide was found bashed in most likely by a rock or hard object.

The slide, which is hollow, was filled with water from the rain, attracting bugs and mosquitoes.

The perimeter of the school is full of security cameras. It would be interesting to know if the high tech surveillance was capable of catching the culprits of this desecration of school property. (And those cameras did not come cheap.)

I think what is most frustrating to the taxpayers of the district, is that not only do we feel we are being overtaxed, but it also seems that the administration is very cavalier in protecting the investments that the taxpayers do make. Sadly, this is a perfect illustration of how the playground is cared for by the school and thought of by some of the people using it.

(Click on pictures to see full-view.)

On Wednesday, June 29th, the Whitehall School District had a special election to vote on two propositions:

Both propositions passed.

Results for Proposition 1 (Replacement Auditorium Roof $115,000)
65 to 3 in favor of passage.

Results for Proposition 2 (Renovation of Auditorium Interior $510,000)
57 to 5 in favor of passage.

All I can say is that Whitehall is not going to turn its fortunes around going down this path of taxing and spending like crazy while the rest of the town and village are in a state of permanent malaise.

Whitehall Central School District
Notice of Capital Project

Notice is Given that a special meeting of the qualified voters of the Whitehall Central School District, Washington County, New York, will be held in the Large Group Instruction Room in the Junior-Senior High School Building on Buckley Road in the Town of Whitehall, New York, on June 29, 2011 between the hours of 12:00 o’clock noon (E.S.T.) and 8:00 o’clock P.M. (E.S.T.) during which hours the polls will be opened to vote by voting machines upon the following items.

PROPOSITION #1

RESOLVED:

a.) That the Board of Education of Whitehall Central School District (the “District”) is hereby authorized to remove and replace the existing Jr-Sr High School Auditorium Roof within the Jr-Sr High School on Buckley Road in the town of Whitehall. b.) That there is hereby appropriated to this project to be paid from a Board of Education authorized transfer from the General Fund to a Capital Project account for the sole purpose of said Roof replacement in an amount not to exceed $115,000.

PROPOSITION #2

RESOLVED:

a.) That the Board of Education of Whitehall Central School District (the “District”) is hereby authorized to renovate and reconstruct the existing Jr-Sr High School Auditorium located on Buckley Road in the town of Whitehall. Said alterations are to include the removal and replacement of existing seating, staging, carpeting, rigging and lighting (both House and Theatrical), ceiling painting and repairs and alterations/upgrades to the existing sound system in conjunction herewith to install such other appurtenance and improvements as are related of such infrastructure, including, such original furnishing, equipment and apparatus as may be required therefore to the Jr-Sr High School Auditorium. The estimated cost thereof being a total estimated maximum cost of $510,000; that such sum or so much thereof as may be necessary shall be appropriated to this project from the “Future Renovations to the Elementary and Jr/Sr High School Buildings Capital Reserve Fund” as established on May 20, 2003

Dated May 9, 2011

By order of the Board of Education
Martha P. Bascue
School District Clerk